Hiking Boulder Creek Falls
North Cascades Travelog #10
Near Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 4pm.
We made pretty good time coming down the trail after visiting Cedar Creek Falls this afternoon. I was thinking the return hike might take until 3, but we were back to the car by 2:30. That gave me more confidence we might even manage three waterfall hikes today, not just two. But first, two. Number 2 was Boulder Creek Falls.
Finding Boulder Creek Falls required a bit of attention to directions and a bit of wilderness sense. We drove back to town and then out on a country road to the north for about 6 miles, turning off onto a forest road. The remaining directions were "Drive 1.8 miles to a wide spot in the road. Park on the right." There's no actual sign for the trail. And around 1.8 miles in there were multiple wide spots in the road. That's where we had to eyeball the shape of the contours of the canyon, predicting where a drop might be, and listen for the sound of crashing water. Fortunately it wasn't that hard (not for us, anyway) and we found the right spot.
In addition to the trail not being signed it was also primitive. It's more like a use trail, where we're following a path created by people following in one another's footsteps rather than a trail built or maintained as a trail. A short walk took us down to a rocky ledge above the falls (photo above).
Earlier we'd seen a person down in the creek below the falls. How to get down there? we wondered. The hill on the right is prohibitively steep, and the creek on the left has no bridge to cross.
"We'll just have to get our feet wet," I proposed.
Hawk was reluctant at first- not so much for getting her feet wet but for the possibility of slipping and torquing her back fording the swift creek. She warmed to it after I went first and didn't fall.
Once across the creek we looped around to the right and walked out on a rock ridge that's kind of opposite the falls. Balancing atop the rock was a bit challenging with wet boots, but I perched there for a while enjoying the view and snapping photos like the one above.
It was pleasant, as well, that we had the area to ourselves. That's one of the benefits of finding these hard-to-find trails.... Not many other people find them. The small group of hikers here when we arrived left a few minutes after we arrived.
I scrambled down the side of the rock face to a spot at the foot of the falls. The scramble was a tad tricky with my wet boots and my stiffening muscles- the downside of doing two-fers and three-fers! But I used my outdoors skill to pick a safe route down the rocks so I didn't slip. The view at the bottom of the falls was kind of similar to the one from 15' higher up but still just enough different to make it worth it. I stayed in the grotto below the falls, enjoying the nature and solitude, for about 10 minutes before heading back up.
Why not stay longer? Well, there's that three-fer we still want to do! Stay tuned for more.
Near Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 4pm.
We made pretty good time coming down the trail after visiting Cedar Creek Falls this afternoon. I was thinking the return hike might take until 3, but we were back to the car by 2:30. That gave me more confidence we might even manage three waterfall hikes today, not just two. But first, two. Number 2 was Boulder Creek Falls.
Finding Boulder Creek Falls required a bit of attention to directions and a bit of wilderness sense. We drove back to town and then out on a country road to the north for about 6 miles, turning off onto a forest road. The remaining directions were "Drive 1.8 miles to a wide spot in the road. Park on the right." There's no actual sign for the trail. And around 1.8 miles in there were multiple wide spots in the road. That's where we had to eyeball the shape of the contours of the canyon, predicting where a drop might be, and listen for the sound of crashing water. Fortunately it wasn't that hard (not for us, anyway) and we found the right spot.
In addition to the trail not being signed it was also primitive. It's more like a use trail, where we're following a path created by people following in one another's footsteps rather than a trail built or maintained as a trail. A short walk took us down to a rocky ledge above the falls (photo above).
Earlier we'd seen a person down in the creek below the falls. How to get down there? we wondered. The hill on the right is prohibitively steep, and the creek on the left has no bridge to cross.
"We'll just have to get our feet wet," I proposed.
Hawk was reluctant at first- not so much for getting her feet wet but for the possibility of slipping and torquing her back fording the swift creek. She warmed to it after I went first and didn't fall.
Once across the creek we looped around to the right and walked out on a rock ridge that's kind of opposite the falls. Balancing atop the rock was a bit challenging with wet boots, but I perched there for a while enjoying the view and snapping photos like the one above.
It was pleasant, as well, that we had the area to ourselves. That's one of the benefits of finding these hard-to-find trails.... Not many other people find them. The small group of hikers here when we arrived left a few minutes after we arrived.
I scrambled down the side of the rock face to a spot at the foot of the falls. The scramble was a tad tricky with my wet boots and my stiffening muscles- the downside of doing two-fers and three-fers! But I used my outdoors skill to pick a safe route down the rocks so I didn't slip. The view at the bottom of the falls was kind of similar to the one from 15' higher up but still just enough different to make it worth it. I stayed in the grotto below the falls, enjoying the nature and solitude, for about 10 minutes before heading back up.
Why not stay longer? Well, there's that three-fer we still want to do! Stay tuned for more.